do your mice stink?

[Colin Vestrand]

this is a dumb question i guess. i had to move my mice to the basement and out of the herp room cause they just stink. i'm talking clean cage, disinfected everything, clean dry aspen bedding, and they still stink... so in the basement they went.
i'm just wondering if it's my mice or if that's just the way mice smell. i'm very particualr with the cleanliness of my animals and this is driving me crazy. maybe give them a bath? haha

[alexrls]

hells ya they stink!! their urine is really bad smelling so you gotta really be ontop of them if u want them to remain stinky-free a good aspen bedding will help to absorb some off the pee but u still need to change it quiet often.

[tigerlily]

I went ahead and moved this to the feeders section.

Oh and it's a common complaint. Those are just stinky little boogers. You can try adding a small amount of vanilla to their water. That's supposed to help a bit. But in the end, they are just nasty smelling creatures. Bleh. Do you have a well ventilated cage?

[Jeanne]

All mice stink, you have to be cleaning contantly to rid yourself of the rodent stink. And if you have great nunbers of them, its harder. That is why I quit breeding mice. Nasty little buggers.

[Jeanne]

I went ahead and moved this to the feeders section.

Oh and it's a common complaint. Those are just stinky little boogers. You can try adding a small amount of vanilla to their water. That's supposed to help a bit. But in the end, they are just nasty smelling creatures. Bleh. Do you have a well ventilated cage?

Christie is right, adding vanilla to thier water does help a bit... and if the cage is not well ventilated, it will stink more....

[rabernet]

Ha! I have six of those buggers right now. Two in one enclosure - since they've been here since October and four new ones in another enclosure getting fattened up for the girls. I must be masochistic or something!


Oh, it's two and four, because I've read mice are very territorial, so I didn't want to introduce the new ones to the two that have been here the longest.

Supposedly the girls have been eating two each feeding, so I figured I've have enough for them - although, Kashmire's seeming interested, peeking his head out his hide more today like he's looking for a tasty morsel!

Oh, and I picked out all girls - last thing I need are babies!

[Colin Vestrand]

yeah i forgot we had this forum, my mouse doesn't scroll this far down too often.

anyway... yeah i really just got them to get some free pinkies and fuzzies. once my carpet gets big enough for adult mice i'm going to feed them off... mice suck!
i'll try the vanilla thing. they have a well ventilated cage and i change the bedding once every 5 days or so... i'm glad it's not just me though.

are rats the same way? i've never had rats either... and i don't recall gerbils or hamsters smelling like this back when i used have them. maybe they did and the cedar bedding covered the smell.

[alexrls]

i have kept a couple a rats (one at a time wiating until next feeding ) and i find that they only smell if you fail to up keep them properly. changing the bedding once in 4 days (paper towels) and washing out the tub kept the smell gone for me. but with mice it's like BAM! they stink!

[Danielle(THM)]

Rats are surprisingly not stinky and very clean animals, I had one as a pet, and my boyfriend has one now, sweet little thing. Hamsters do smell a bit, but not as bad as mice, and I don't know about gerbils.

[JLC]

Gerbils aren't stinky at all, so long as you maintain their cages well. Once-a-week cleaning (change bedding and rinse out tank) worked well for me to keep them smelling fresh and breezy.